Han Dynasty Watchtower Ruins and Buffalo Tomb

Han Dynasty Watchtower Ruins and Buffalo Tomb

The Han Dynasty Watchtower Ruins and Buffalo Tomb are protected cultural heritage sites of Anhui Province.

The Han Dynasty Watchtower Ruins and Buffalo Tomb are located within Xiangshan Park.

As an auxiliary structure of Xiantong Temple, the Mingtai Platform was once used to play music when welcoming feudal officials and local gentry who came up the mountain to worship. A large Han Dynasty tomb once stood here, guarded in front by a stone watchtower. When the Mingtai Platform was built, the stone watchtower was dismantled and repurposed. Today, we can still see fragments of the stone watchtower, its capstone, and main body, providing valuable material for the study of ancient stages and Han Dynasty stone watchtowers. The Mingtai Platform is about 2 meters high and approximately 6 meters long and wide, constructed from a large number of Han Dynasty stone blocks. The surrounding ground is paved with crushed stones, and there is a section of steps on the eastern side. Archaeologists explain that the ground and steps were added in recent years. Walking up the steps onto the Mingtai Platform, besides well-preserved large stone blocks, there are also some smaller fragmented stones. Archaeologists conducted a detailed survey of the Han Dynasty watchtower ruins and the surrounding environment on-site, carefully measuring and recording the length, width, and height of all the stones, and made drawings. According to the on-site survey, the Mingtai Platform is composed of over 100 Han Dynasty stone blocks, with the longest block exceeding 3 meters.